Last weekend while balancing my bank accounts, I noticed a $1 "excessive transactions" fee on my savings account. I had transferred money from my savings account, to my checking account at the same bank, four times during the statement period. I called the customer service line to ask them about it, and the rep I talked to said there is a limit of three times/statement on moving money out of a savings account. I asked why, and he said it was because of Federal regulations. I had never heard of any such rule, and frankly, it sounds like a bunch of baloney to me.

Does anyone know for sure whether there is or isn't any such regulation?

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Yes, there are some limitations. When opening money market and savings accounts I am usually warned about some federal-regulations-based limit on withdrawal (but not deposit) transactions; although it's often 6 per month, but 3 also rings a bell... (sorry I can't be more specific)

The federal limit is 6 transactions, it only applies to money market type accounts. The excessive fee is usually much larger though... typically around $25.

Also, they would not have the power to 'deny' the transaction as the bacnk cannot control your access to your money.

The $1 fee sounds like something the bank is doing on its own and different from the Fed fee.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smjsl

Yes, there are some limitations. When opening money market and savings accounts I am usually warned about some federal-regulations-based limit on withdrawal (but not deposit) transactions; although it's often 6 per month, but 3 also rings a bell... (sorry I can't be more specific)

My bank always had a $2.00 fee for more than 6 transactions per month to/from my savings account. This was true for years.

A year or two it was bought out by a big nation-wide bank, so I don't know if those fees remain or not.

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the very bottom has an interesting claim that as of 7/09, the limit is 6 for checks too.......best to check w/ your bank to confirm that they agree.

It's as clear as mud
I think they are misapplying the regulation. None of the transfers involved a third party, debit card or check, which is the type of transaction that is limited to three per month. They were online or ATM transfers from my savings account to my checking account—the money never left the bank. Those are limited to six, but I only had four.

Who do I complain to, someone in the branch, or the customer service line?

Who do I complain to, someone in the branch, or the customer service line?

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.......start somewhere and escalate to a supervisor if necessary. Hopefully you won't have to get the Feds involved. btw.......I admire a person of principle fighting for the rest of us for $1 (not joking). In principle, Schwab Bank and Alliant CU savings accounts have a limit of 6, I am told. Good luck .

Sounds like another good reason to have your accounts at a credit union.

Credit Unions do this as well. It's 3 transfers for savings and 6 transfers for money market accounts at my credit union. Doesn't matter if its to an outside source or between accounts at the credit union.

Credit Unions do this as well. It's 3 transfers for savings and 6 transfers for money market accounts at my credit union. Doesn't matter if its to an outside source or between accounts at the credit union.

Then it must not be mandatory or my CU is breaking the law. I easily make more than 3, and probably more than 6, transfer from savings each month and am never charged.

Edit to update: I looked at the last couple of months and it's at least 6 a month. During September I had 13 transfers from savings to checking, one to a family member's account and one outside transfer. The only charges I have ever paid was back when I first started electronic bill pay and I was still doing transfers by myself (I finally resolved my trust issues with scheduling automated transfers). And that was just a checking account charge of $2 when they had to go to the savings account and transfer enough to cover a check.

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My bank (and maybe all banks) have a 6 transaction limit on savings accounts. I found out about it when I linked the account to PayPal and bought 3 Christmas presents on Ebay. The PayPal transactions inexplicably came through as multiple transaction each for a total of 7. Bank charged me $25 for excess transactions and told me they would close the account if I made another transaction that month. I was able to get the charge reversed after discussing what closing that account would do for the other accounts I hold with them, but it's an unhappy truce at best. I was unable to find anyone at the bank with authority to assure me this wouldn't be a problem again next time. Their suggestion was just turn the "savings" account into a checking account, since the interest it earns is miniscule anyways. True, but a perverse marketing strategy.

Thanks for the Reg D explanation. Too bad some common sense or local judgement cannot be applied. Apparently the regulators are more worried that the bank will inaccurately calculate their reserves because my savings account (currently 10's of thousands or dollars) was accessed 7 times by PayPal for $140 instead of only a few times for the same dollar amount. It would seem much more inaccuate to me to classify this as a checking account since I'm adding $1000 per month to it and once (and only once) withdrew less than $200 in a month (December for a Christmas present).

Just for grins I called my CU this morning and asked if there was any limit to the number of electronic transfers I could make from my savings. "Not that I know of", was the semi-helpful answer. So, I hit her with the old "this happened to my friend at his bank" and described the typical scenario problem with Regulation D at her, and she said "I don't think we do anything like that." Regulation D struck no chord at all, and I probably could have said the Tanganyika Accord of 1904 and gotten the same lack of recognition.

I didn't look at my old Quicken records, but I've got stuff in Money back to 2005 and I see where I've frequently done way more than 6 transactions in a month since then. While I may try to lump smaller transfers into larger ones (no sense in flaunting things), for the most part I'm not going to sweat it.

My research on the net found many stories of people running afoul of Reg D, and the ins and outs of what the reg covers is consistent throughout, although there was a change recently that not everyone seems to have figured out yet.

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